UPDATE: Led by 26 points by Hailey Van Lith, TCU defeated Notre Dame 71-62 Saturday afternoon to advance to the Elite Eight and a Monday night game against Texas, a 67-59 winner over Tennessee in Saturday’s other Birmingham Region 3 Sweet 16 game .
When Hailey Van Lith realized she had secured her first career double-double with assists after a nonconference game against NC State on Nov. 17, the Texas Christian University women’s basketball transfer burst into tears and hugged second-year head coach Mark Campbell.
Video of the moment was viewed more than 700,000 times on TCU’s official X account and millions of times total on social media. It encapsulated Van Lith’s turnaround from troubled point guard experiment at LSU to one of the nation’s most efficient backcourt playmakers who has competed her way back onto WNBA draft boards.
The moment was also a memorable part of TCU’s dramatic reversal in fortunes, catalyzed by donor investment, a shrewd hiring decision and an all-in approach to the transfer portal.
TCU is having its best-ever season by almost any metric, reaching all-time highs in wins (33), AP ranking (No. 6) and NCAA Tournament seeding (No. 2).
As the Horned Frogs ready for their first Sweet 16, where they will face No. 3 seed Notre Dame on Saturday, legions of fans are tracking their journey from afar. Van Lith (1.2 million Instagram followers) and Sedona Prince (2.5 million TikTok followers) have brought them one of the largest social media reaches in the nation, and the squad’s on-court success has added to the interest.
The national spotlight comes after TCU went 1-17 in the Big 12 in 2022-23, missing March Madness for a 13th year in a row. But even during that abysmal season, the program’s financial foundation was already in place.
TCU spent about $8 million on its women’s basketball team in 2022-23, according to EADA data submitted annually to the Department of Education. That was more investment than any other current Big 12 team besides Baylor ($9.8 million) that year. TCU easily cleared Iowa State ($5.3 million), Oklahoma State ($4.7 million) and Kansas State ($4.5 million). BYU, still a year away from joining the conference, spent $3.7 million.
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Appointing Campbell as head coach in 2023 was a masterstroke. A former Oregon assistant well-connected on the West Coast recruiting trail, the 45-year-old has used the transfer portal to fuel a rapid transformation that would have been impossible five years ago, when NCAA rules dictated that players needed to sit out a year after changing schools.
This year’s top seven Horned Frog scorers had connections with Campbell that predated his arrival in Fort Worth.
Prince played under Campbell at Oregon. Van Lith is a Wenatchee, Wash., native who Campbell recruited when he coached the Ducks. Ditto for former Oregon State starter Donovyn Hunter and ex-Oregon player Taylor Bigby, who arrived in Eugene the same year Campbell left for his first head coaching job at Sacramento State.
Madison Conner, one of the most prolific 3-point shooters in the nation since leaving Arizona, was familiar with Campbell from her three years in the Pac-12. Same with Agnes Emma-Nnopu, a national champion at Stanford.
“It’s cool to come into a program and see the beginnings point of it, talking to Mark and seeing the vision he had for the team and all of us transfers that came in and trusted his process and the plan that he had for us,” Hunter said at a press conference following TCU’s second-round win over Louisville. “I think he took a huge risk on us, and we took a risk on this program, not necessarily knowing what was going to come out of it.”
Last week, TCU rewarded Campbell with a contract extension through 2030. Financial details were not disclosed, but as a Naismith Women’s College Coach of the Year finalist this season, he undoubtedly could have drawn big-money interest elsewhere if the school failed to lock him down.
Still, the Horned Frogs have challenges on the horizon. Campbell will be tested on his ability to maintain a competitive squad with fewer legacy connections to pull from. Van Lith and Prince are projected 2025 WNBA Draft selections who account for more than 40% of the team’s scoring.
But the school will remain well-resourced, having started a $50 million donor-funded series of construction projects last summer that will include upgrades for its athletic performance center and the building of a 10,000-square-foot restoration and wellness center—bringing TCU’s donor-funded sports facility spending to nearly $500 million since the school entered the Big 12 in 2012.